Grass and theocracies of the future

Ah “Grass.” I enjoyed this novel immensely but frankly I thought all the characters should be smoking grass. This novel portrayed one of the most pessimistic renderings of human future I’ve ever read. However, after going to Catholic school… I would not say the most unrealistic. Although humanity has become more secular overall and I believe people in the West would rally against a religious hegemony, I do not believe that the concept of a future religious hegemony should be ruled out. Although one may say that religious fanaticism only exists in underdeveloped countries with low human security, one should turn one’s gaze to the religious right in our nation and organizations such as the Westboro Church. An excellent film to watch is “Jesus Camp” which documents a woman’s successful attempts to make hundreds of American children willing to give their lives for Christ. Here’s a clip highlighting some of the more horrific parts of the film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LACyLTsH4ac. The fact that movements like this are growing in America only renders organizations such as the Sanctity more realistic. Religious hegemonies are not an alien concept to science fiction. For example, in Halo the main antagonist is a religious juggernaut known as the Covenant. Religious fanaticism is also explored in Battlestar Galactica. However, theocracies are often doomed to eneffeiciency. Delagating posts based on faith rather than merit often leads to corruption and ineptness. Policy based on ecclestial reasoning rather than logic or rational thought also leads to inane descision making. Also, basing the authority to rule on a divine mandate rather than the consent of the people can lead to rebellion and a failure to meet public needs. For these reasons I believe that a theocracy would be short lived in a contemporary or futuristic setting, even if it reached the status of hegemony. Besides this, religious fanaticism often leads to the impediment of technological and scientific advancement, making it difficult for humanity to compete with a more secular race or even reach the stars. This is refenced to in grass actually as the Sanctity slowed progress and colonization. Actually religious fanaticism often calls for reactionary action concerning science and technology. It was interesting to see though how the Sanctity used DNA collection and machines to ensure immortality. For me this provided a different concept of how resurrection can be achieved. Although I do not know if the DNA was meant for cloning, it must also be realized that clones do not bring back the consciousness of the original person.